Creating a Profitable ROI with Social Media Marketing in 2010

The most common question I hear as a Social Media Marketing Consultant is this:

How do I get the highest ROI from my social media marketing campaign?

Businesses want to know what the return on investment is for using social media, but it's a complex question to answer for many reasons. Like any other marketing plan it depends greatly on the investment you put in.

The most important thing to remember is that you actually have to make an investment to expect any kind of return. Another interesting point is that looking only at the bottom line does not give you a full scope of what your return has been. The main difference is that social media is not only a tool for marketing; it is also a great customer service tool and provides open interaction with your consumers.

Another common question is what are other businesses doing? It's a good question to ask especially if you are looking at direct competition, but ultimately looking at how other businesses use social media can only reveal a fraction of what you need to know. Social media is based on the relationships you build with people and the consumers you are interacting with. That is going to be different for every business.

So how do you get the best ROI from social media marketing?

There is no magic formula that will get you results because this marketing plan should be customized for every business or professional individually. You actually do need to invest time and money in order to expect the best return. The biggest problem with most business is that spend tons of money setting up a social media marketing plan and then never consistently engage consumers with it. Social Media is not something you can set up and forget. For example a Facebook page for your business with no updates or calls to action for your consumers is doing nothing for you. You have to actually engage your consumers in order to get a return on your investment and that requires consistent plans to develop content and engage interaction.

The number one reason businesses fail with social media is that they try to go it alone and end up feeling like they waste all of their time with social media getting no return at all. This can often be one of the biggest mistakes-simply because most businesses do not have the skills to successfully implement this type of marketing plan. You end up wasting time and resources because you don't know how to use social media efficiently or effectively. What this means is that you can not think of social media as a one time project-this is something that takes time and effort to work effectively. Consider using a professional social media consultant to help develop or manage your plan.

Generally in business you need to realize that your return is only as good as your investment-this means if you plan and use your resources wisely then you will end up with a better return. The strict picture of ROI is the bottom line-but that is not the approach you need to have when considering social media. There are more advantages to your business in developing a strong social media presence than just the bottom line return. By engaging your consumers you can gain valuable insight into what they want and with excellent customer service you will increase your consumers' loyalty and referral business as well. Yes, businesses need to think of the bottom line-but they also need to recognize that to get to the bottom line investments must be made, processes need to developed, and relationships need to be built. Without these things, a profitable bottom line cannot be achieved.

Social media is one of the only ways to directly target your demographics, you can advertise directly to your consumers based on exact demographics giving you higher conversion rates on your ads. With all these things being said I encourage you to consider using social media because it can be one of the most profitable forms of marketing for your business if you do it the right way.

For those who want to learn more about how to create a profitable ROI using our practical guide to social media marketing download our free e-book here:

A Practical Guide To Social Media Marketing: The Essential Steps to creating a profitable ROI

If you had any lingering doubts that social networking is here to stay, doubt no longer.

Here are some interesting facts about social media:

Social Media is currently the #1 activity on the Web

The American Dialect Society announced that "tweet: is the top word for 2009, and "Google" is the top word of the past decade.

By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers....96% of them have joined a social network

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations & only 14% trust advertisements

80% of Twitter usage is outside of Twitter...people update anywhere, anytime...imagine what that means for bad customer experiences? Twitter also grew by over 500% this year.

Facebook has over 350,000,000 active users world wide and they share over 1.5 million items daily-do you know what they are saying about you and your brand?

Facebook reaches 56% of the active U.S. Internet universe with an average usage of 6 hrs a month per user

Time spent on social networking sites in the U.S. increased 277% this year

Sources: Socialnomics, Techcrunch, Facebook, Twitter

Spend Less Time on Social Media and Still Get Results

Many people get overwhelmed by spending so much time on social media that it takes away from other important tasks each day. Here I share some of my tips on how to spend less than an hour a day on social media. The key is to focus on the most important aspects of social media: Observe. Participate. Grow.

First, spend 15 minutes a day observing your network. See what others in your professional network are saying. You will often find useful information just by looking at updates within your network. Plus this will give you some opportunities to engage communication with those in your current network.

Next, spend 15-20 minutes participating in your social media network by updating your status or adding information to your network. Impossible you say—not if you know how to take shortcuts! If you haven’t yet check out Ping.fm. This is a wonderful application that will automatically post your updates to all of your social network sites at once-yes all at once. Meaning you type it once and it sends out your update to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Here are some other things to keep in mind when you consider what you are going to post. It is never a good idea to send out meaningless posts or pointless messages-this may make people skip your meaningful posts later. Always try to post substantial information on your network that will actually be worth reading. It is also a good idea to separate your professional and personal contacts on your networks—that way you segment the information appropriately to each group.

Finally, spend 15 minutes a day developing new relationships. This will help you to continue growing your network each day. This can be accomplished through participation on social networks, through reading new blogs and commenting, or participating in group discussions, etc.

P.S. Don’t forget it is okay to say NO to requests for access through your networks-you don’t have to accept every application request people send you-especially when you use your social media network professionally—this can end up being a real drain on your time if you let it.

For more tips on social media marketing check out this article Starting a Social Media Marketing Campaign.

Drowning in Social Media? A Social Media Virtual Assistant Just Might Rescue You!

The growing popularity in social media has created great anxiety among many businesses about how to use them and how to create a profitable ROI using them. Social Media is the buzz in many marketing departments these days, and the biggest concern is how to spend time and resources wisely when using Social Media. So how can you build your company's social media presence when it seems like the next hottest thing is popping up every few seconds? One way is to utilize a social media virtual assistant, someone who is knowledgeable and can help you optimize your return on investment while promoting a positive image for you and your business in social media networks.

Creating a successful social media marketing strategy is a very complex process and often times leaves you frustrated and overwhelmed if you really don’t know what you are doing. In order to achieve a profitable ROI it is very important to strategically plan your social media campaign. First, you need to research your current industry to see where your consumers are already gathering online.

Once you have established key locations to engage your consumers you need to then establish a plan to generate interaction with them. This is the hard part. It is sometimes difficult to determine whether you should engage in a conversation that's happening about your company, products or services. It is also usually a challenge to develop quality content—a common misconception is that quantity is more important when it comes to social media—this is false. People have trained themselves to ignore those little ad-like posts and simply skip over them while browsing. Think about it—when is the last time you actually read a post that looked like an advertisement? You also need to choose content that is easily shareable-but how do you decide what type of content to use with so many options? A social media professional will help you weed out time wasting tasks while helping you focus on generating quality content that will get you results.

How do you calculate your ROI? This depends on the investment of time and resources used in executing a social media strategy and the actual costs of any targeted advertising within social media platforms. A successful strategy will create new leads and drive new sales while building customer loyalty at the same time for repeat and referral business. You have to really consider the amount of time you are actually spending on these tasks.

Can you research on-line and read countless how to guides for Social Media marketing? Yes.

Can you spend hours working on social media instead of running your business? Yes.

Can you struggle with learning new platforms and technologies in order to promote yourself on-line? Yes.

The real question is why in the world would you-when you can easily and affordably outsource this work to trained social media virtual assistant who could handle it all for you?

If you really want to achieve a profitable ROI it may be well advised to use professional support for creating your social media marketing strategy. A social media virtual assistant will know how to best use the tools and platforms to optimize your strategy. If you are overwhelmed with the tasks involved in implementing your social media marketing campaign, then outsourcing to a social media virtual assistant may save you valuable time, resources and money. With the demand increasing daily for your market position on-line can you afford to start a New Year without a fresh marketing campaign?

With the increased demand for social media services we are now offering a Free Social Media Marketing Consultation to help you get your marketing in gear for New Year. Just complete the form and we will contact you for your free no obligation consultation.

GET YOUR FREE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CONSULTATION HERE

Starting a Social Media Campaign: Basic Ideas for Social Media Marketing Strategy

Here are a few social media ideas designed for those companies who are just beginning to engage with social media marketing. This initial strategy will help show some benefits of social media marketing services while limiting the risk involved.

1. Internal Communication - One of the often overlooked social media advantages is that they can often be used privately for internal communication. You can create a password protected workspace for collaborating, a corporate blog, a private intranet or you could start with some online training.
2. Web Conferencing- Another great option would be to utilize professional web conferencing. This is a wonderful way to engage in social media. The next time you have a planned conference that would normally require travel utilize a free trail from a web conference company online to try it out. This is a great social media tool and as a bonus, it is a great way to save money on travel expenses!
3. Content Sharing- One of the concepts becoming a huge force in the future of social media marketing is the idea of content curation. First, you simply find content that already exists and then share it in some sort of useful format, such as a blog. The greatest advantage with this activity is that at first it requires no content creation. It also helps brands to ease into social media simply by finding what is already out there and bringing it together in a useful way. This is a great way to share relevant information with your audience without the pressure of coming up with new content (just be sure to observe copyrights and always post sources).
4. Industry Tracking- Though it is common to hear that you should be listening online, what is often disregarded is how you should be focusing on keywords for the industry that you are in. See what words people are using to talk about your industry online and you can learn how you might be able to make your business or brand more shareable with your social media marketing efforts. Twitter is a great tool to use for searching keyword content for your industry—simply enter your industry as the search term and see what posts come up—you can easily scan the posts to see what words people are commonly using within posts that are relevant to your industry. This will help you better target your market with your social media strategy.
5. YouTube Channel - Many businesses or brands have videos that were produced for some reason, maybe for sales training or as advertising. Posting these videos onto YouTube is an easy way to share content that you already have. It is cost effective and gets you started with the process of uploading, tagging and sharing your content online. If you are worried about possible comments on your channel simply disable the commenting option-instead offer a link on the page for private feedback if you wish.
   
   As an internet marketing specialist and social media marketing consultant I have developed this initial social media strategy to assist those companies just beginning to use social media and internet marketing. If you are interested in social media but are not sure where to start with the technology involved a virtual assistant may be a great option to get you started with using social media marketing.

Capturing More Consumers with Social Media Marketing

In the world of Social Media Marketing the obvious goal for most business owners is to capture new customers. In order to do that there are certain things any successful plan should include. First things first, you should always direct new customers to your social media pages online-this means adding the information to your current marketing materials, corporate website, blogs and any other media outlets you use. One way to increase participation is to offer an incentive or promotion associated with the act of becoming your friend, fan, or follower. Capture current customers by offering those who have just made a purchase a discount for the next purchase if they become a fan, etc. Another great way to promote your business is to add sharing options within your website—for example offer a share this with your friend’s link after a purchase-this can easily be set up using applications that are already available with many social network sites, like Facebook.

After you have users signed up to follow you, you need to consistently engage them with new content, exclusive offers or useful information they can’t get anywhere else. The best way to develop your social media network is to consistently offer them quality content. Another key aspect is to offer exclusive promotions within your social media network-this makes it more valuable to your consumer and creates customer loyalty.

Engage your audience—most consumers actually like to participate in conversations about products or services they use—utilize polls and allow commenting on your posts—you might be surprised by what you learn from your consume. As an added perk you are actually getting market research without the hefty price tag.

Follow these simple steps to help capture more consumers with your social media marketing campaigns.

Real Estate Tech Tip: Linking Your Blog on Facebook

Are you linking your outside blog on Facebook? If not you should be-especially if you are in Real Estate. This is a great way to post valuable content on your profile or you business fan page without the added work of posting new status updates. If you link your blog to your account it will automatically update your feed any time you post. This is a great way to add your properties on Facebook for FREE. Follow us to get the latest tips for Internet & Social Media Marketing.

For help with adding this application to your Facebook account or for assistance with other Facebook apps contact me today.